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Video: Virtual Reality hair cut simulator “Air-Hair”

Posted: 29 Jun 2010 05:02 AM PDT

I’ve seen many things in the tech and gadget world, but this one’s a first. A robot research team at Tokyo Institute of Technology has developed a “virtual reality”-based hair cut simulation system. Aptly named Air-Hair, the system makes it possible to imitate the process of cutting a person’s hair using a manikin and a pair of physical “scissors” that’s connected to a screen showing the head of an avatar.

In order to replicate the feeling of cutting a person’s hair, the Air-Hair makers attached a small motor to the scissors that creates resistance in the fingers of the user. When you “cut” the manikin’s hair by opening and closing the scissors, the hairstyle of the avatar changes in real-time (apart from a motor, the scissors also come with an infrared LED through which the system identifies the current position).

The Air-Hair makers are currently trying to improve their simulator, but after seeing the video embedded below, I have serious doubts this could ever commercialized in the form of a toy for kids or training tool for hairstylists. I’d like to try it out once though.

This video provides more insight:

Here’s another video (in Japanese):

Seagate makes good on its promise, outs the 3TB FreeAgent GoFlex Desk external hard drive

Posted: 29 Jun 2010 05:00 AM PDT

Ladies and gents, this is a 3TB hard drive. Let that sink in. Three effin terabytes. That’s a whole lot of data on one hard drive. Seagate previously stated that the drive would be out by year’s end, but here it is and it’s barely summer.

The FreeAgent GoFlex family is Seagate’s first product line to sport the gigantic hard drive. USB 3.0, USB 2.0 and Firewire 800 via Seagate’s GoFlex adapters are tasked with the job of transferring the data to and fro the connected computer. The USB 2.0 flavor is available right now with the MSRP $249.

The real story, however, isn’t that Seagate managed to stuff 3TB into one 3.5-inch hard drive. It’s that Seagate is actually bringing it to market amid so many potential problems.

You see, a lot of computers can’t use the full 3TB at once. It has to do with the LBA (logical block addressing) standard that was wrote back in the days of DOS. The original standard limited drives to 2.1TB, which seemed like a whole lot back in the roaring ’80s.

32-bit OS like Windows and OS X 10.5 and below will only see partitions 2.1TB or smaller. The full 3TB can be used, but only in chunks that’s supported by LBA. Then there are issues with MBR’s, RAID systems and hard drive controllers, too. But Seagate has pushed forward and outed the drive anyway.

Of course many of the issues associated with these large drives are null seeing as this implementation is as an external drive. By putting the 3TB drive in an external enclosure, Seagate is sort of saying it’s not meant for primary disk usage or RAID arrays. That’s not going to stop people from cracking the case and slapping the massive drive into their primary rigs, though. It will however give Seagate customer service an easy out until all the driver issues are worked out. Smart.

SEAGATE BREAKS CAPACITY CEILING WITH WORLD'S
FIRST 3 TERABYTE EXTERNAL DESKTOP DRIVE

New FreeAgent™ GoFlex™ Desk Packs Unprecedented Amount of Storage for both Mac and PC

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. — June 29, 2010 — Putting more terabytes in the hands of consumers worldwide, Seagate (NASDAQ: STX), the leader in hard drives and storage solutions, today announced the world's first 3 Terabyte (TB) external desktop drive. Available immediately, the 3TB FreeAgent™ GoFlex™ Desk external hard drive helps to meet the explosive worldwide demand for digital content storage in both the home and the office. With 3TB of capacity people can store up to 120 HD movies, 1,500 video games, thousands of photos or countless hours of digital music.

A key addition to the company's recently introduced GoFlex family of hard drives, the 3TB GoFlex Desk couples immense capacity with the flexibility to adapt the drive's USB 2.0 interface to a USB 3.0 or FireWire 800 connection to meet varying performance and transfer speed needs. Consumers can easily create, store and access content from either a Windows® or Mac OS X computer on the GoFlex Desk, thanks to an included NTFS driver for Mac.

"Consumer capacity demands are quickly out-pacing the needs of business as people continue to collect high-definition videos, photos and music," said Dave Mosley, Seagate executive vice president of Sales, Marketing and Product Line Management. "Seagate has a tradition of designing products that break into new storage frontiers to meet customer requirements and the 3TB GoFlex™ Desk is no exception–delivering the highest-capacity storage solution available today."

A recent report by Parks Associates indicates the average consumer household will see its digital media storage needs grow to nearly 900GB by year-end 2014, driven in large part by video downloads, managed copies of Blu-ray
discs, and increasing use of DVR recording capabilities[1]. The GoFlex Desk drive delivers unconstrained[2], high-capacity storage and automatic, continuous backup with software file encryption to keep all data safe and secure[3]. The standard USB 2.0 interface can be upgraded to USB 3.0 or FireWire® 800 by coupling the drive with the appropriate GoFlex upgrade adapter to increase file transfer performance by up to 10x for easier copying or sharing of files.

"As the definition quality of digital cameras increases, playback devices such as digital photo frames and MP3 players proliferate and the use of the Internet for downloading music and video continues to grow, more files accumulate in the home," said Kurt Scherf. "Consumers who are active in digital media creation and consumption will witness their digital media storage needs grow nine-fold by 2014, driving the demand for higher capacity, easy-to-use storage solutions."

GoFlex Desk is also compatible with both Windows and Mac computers. Each drive includes an NTFS driver for Mac, which allows the drive to store and access files from both Windows and Mac OS X computers without reformatting. The NTFS driver is simply installed once on a Mac computer, allowing it to read and write files on a Windows formatted[4] drive. Its sleek black, 3.5-inch design sits either vertically or horizontally to accommodate any desktop environment.

The 3TB GoFlex Desk drive with USB 2.0 adapter can be purchased on Seagate.com and through select retailers for $249.99.

Daily Crunch: Defender Edition

Posted: 29 Jun 2010 12:00 AM PDT

New Playstation firmware update coming soon

Posted: 28 Jun 2010 10:38 PM PDT

In a recent updated to the Playstation blog, Sony released some news about the latest firmware update coming to the PS3 and PSP system. Luckily, Sony was kind enough to include some information about exactly what changes will be coming out in the next update.

So what’s coming up in that new firmware? Well, to start off, PlayStation Network users will be able to purchase membership to PlayStation Plus, which is a subscription based service to allow you to “expand and enhance your gaming experience”. The subscription service will give you access to exclusive features, content, and functionality. No word on how much it’ll cost per month, but I’m sure that Sony will let us know as we get closer to launch date.

There’s also a new Photo Gallery feature, it’s a network based photo sharing feature. This new enhancement will allow you to upload, browse, and comment on pictures on Facebook and Picasa. It’s a shame that it doesn’t work with Flickr yet, but maybe the next version.

Multimedia seems to be Sony’s target on this one, they also added a Video editor and uploader feature, which will allow you to edit, save, and upload video files stored on your PS3 to Facebook or Youtube.

The PS3 has also gone green down, with a built in power save feature. The default setting is to turn the console off automatically after 2 hours, however this is customizable, and there are additional power save options to further improve the “green” features on the PS3.

There are several more features coming in the new firmware, but we just wanted to touch on the main points. You can read the complete list at the Playstation Blog where they touch on some of the new features for the PSP as well.

All 5 US variants of the Samsung Galaxy S compared

Posted: 28 Jun 2010 08:24 PM PDT

We knew that Samsung had a winner on their hands with the Samsung Galaxy S, and we knew that a US version would probably be popular, but we didn't think we'd end up with 5 versions across 5 US carriers. If you're stuck deciding on which variant would best suit you, we've compiled this handy list outlining the main differences, prices, and launch dates for the next Android super phone, as they compare to the original non-US model.


Opportunistic law firm to launch class action lawsuit against Apple concerning reception issues?

Posted: 28 Jun 2010 07:27 PM PDT

Let’s file this one under “potentially frivolous.” Kershaw, Cutter, and Ratinoff are a legal outfit best known for filing against Zynga regarding the notorious Farmville offers, may be filing for a class action lawsuit against Apple. Unlike the Zynga case, this one seems less than legit. That’s assuming they even deem it worthwhile; they’re just collecting data right now:

“KCR is currently investigating potential problems with the release of iPhone 4.

If you recently purchased the new iPhone and have experienced poor reception quality, dropped calls and weak signals, we would like to hear from you.”

Seems to me that this whole debacle falls under the “caveat emptor” exclusion from seller responsibility.

Continue reading…

Pro tip: bring your own media to the store to check HDTV quality

Posted: 28 Jun 2010 05:30 PM PDT


This is a good thing to remember, as long as your local Best Buy or electronics store doesn’t mind you plugging stuff into their sets. Just get a USB stick (or better, two or three) and fill it up with pictures that will show off the strengths and weaknesses of the displays you’re considering. It’s a bit of a rough-and-tumble way of checking, since the color settings and such might not be optimized, but put a few test patterns or familiar photos up on there and you’ll be able to spot issues easily. Bringing along a movie you know well is another option, but not so good for comparisons. Some more tips here.

Choose the best camera for you with Snapsort

Posted: 28 Jun 2010 05:00 PM PDT

So you’ve been shopping for a new camera, but you’re not sure what one you want. Sure, you’ve looked at megapixels, sensor size, and shutter speed until your eyes bleed. But don’t you wish there was an easy way to compare two cameras? Some easy way to look at the nuts and bolts of a couple of cameras to help you make your final decision? Enter Snapsort, a new website designed to allow you to not just compare technical features, but compare them in a way that makes sense to the normal person.

I like the Snapsort site because it has enough technical information to satisfy an enthusiast like me, but it also provides information in layman’s terms, and makes it easy to understand. You can look at pretty much all levels of camera, from low end point and shoots to high end DSLRs. The comparison is easy to read, easy to understand, and laid out very well. There’s even an area for comments, but they appear to be more about spam then intelligent discourse. Regardless of the comments, it’s definitely worth your while to check out Snapsort if you’re shopping for a new camera.


Tetris creator has been working on true multiplayer Tetris for “more than 10 years”

Posted: 28 Jun 2010 04:30 PM PDT

Tetris is among the most widely-played games in history. So why is it that relatively few (in my experience) have every truly played it with another person? Probably because the multiplayer Tetris variants have been — well, more hacks than anything else. Sure, linked Gameboy Tetris was awesome, and there are established multiplayer Tetris communities, but as far as the creator of the game is concerned, we’re “not quite there yet.”

This interview, conducted by Gamasutra at one of the many 25th anniversary Tetris events this year, reveals that Alexey Pajitnov has been wrestling with this concept for quite a while:

It was quite a problem with Tetris that… the game is very intense, you know? If you play on the high level — and that’s where you want to play usually. So, you play on the edge of your abilities, in terms of the speed and reaction, and everything. So, you kind of have no brain resources to observe what the other people are doing.

Yeah. That’s the kind of measured theoretical problem which we need to resolve with multiplayer Tetris. So, if we lower the intensity of personal game playing, we, a little bit, lower the excitement of the game. But if we keep it at the same level, the players don’t have resources to really do some kind of multiplayer actions, to observe, to analyze what’s going on in the big picture, and adjust their strategy.

Personally, I found Tengen’s cooperative Tetris the most enjoyable variant so far. I played it a lot with friends — I admit, at various states of intoxication — and made an interesting discovery: people have, or don’t have, Tetris compatibility.

Playing with my friend Natalie, who is as good or better than I am (always level 9 with handicap on original NES Tetris), I found we were constantly in each other’s way. But playing with my friend Jeremy, who (sorry, Jeremy) was significantly less experienced than Natalie, our play styles just meshed. We racked up huge scores, completing each other’s actions, watching and preparing for the other guy’s piece, and son on.

Really an amazing experience, actually. You can get something like it on Wii with Tetris Party.

But Alexey says they have something coming. Something “really cool.” I trust the guy who came up with this thing to know what he’s about. Can’t wait to find out what it is!

Barnes & Noble financials: e-book store blowing up like what

Posted: 28 Jun 2010 04:30 PM PDT


So Barnes & Noble just let loose its financial results for the last year (ending May 1), and things are looking pretty rosy, at least if you take their view of them. The main point is that the e-book store is gaining popularity and online sales are solid, while brick-and-mortar sales are, predictably, in decline. B&N’s CEO, William Lynch, chose to highlight this little statistic:

In fact, in just a brief 12 months since we launched the Barnes and Noble ebookstore, our share of the digital market already exceeds our share of the retail book market.

Good for them… I think. I don’t think it’s really that surprising that an up-and-coming new industry (and one with so few players) like e-bookstores should exceed the performance of a visibly endangered one. But that said, B&N could easily have blown it rather than leveraged their properties correctly — resulting in a trouncing by Kindle, iBookstore, and what have you.

They’ve successfully hitched their wagon to a shooting star, in other words, when they might have missed it entirely or messed up the job. They’re still losing money, if I’m reading this correctly, but who knows what that really means these days? It’s within their projections, they say, which is something of a consolation. They’re not going anywhere for a while, at any rate:

We are planning to redirect a significant portion of our financial resources towards investments in technology, sales and marketing.

I hear that as: more Nooks (which have successfully driven sales), more e-books, and… probably layoffs and store closures.

Read the full report here.

The 3DS’ semi-secret weapon: 3Difying the back catalog

Posted: 28 Jun 2010 04:00 PM PDT


When the 3DS was announced, Nintendo did it alongside a ridiculous amount of fan service. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been hoping for a new Kid Icarus game for almost my entire life. Along with remakes or reduxes of classics like Ocarina of Time, StarFox, Paper Mario, there were a number of 3rd-party titles and other fun stuff. But Nintendo has never been reliant on third parties for its breakout hits. Occasionally something like GoldenEye comes along and faces them hard, but the big N has always been about its core properties and, let’s be honest, mining nostalgia.

So: think about it. What’s the obvious move? New 3D technology… old titles. I guarantee we’re going to see a huge explosion of DSWare/downloadables in the form of back catalog games rendered in 3DS-compatible stereo 3D.

All Nintendo has to do is port a few of the standard graphics engines to the 3DS’ impressive new hardware (which we pegged at near-Wii levels of graphic fidelity), map some of the controls to the bottom screen, and set the output to be compatible with the 3DS’ parallax barrier display. I mean, that’s not a trivial task, but Nintendo can do it all internally, having led the development of many of said graphic engines and already having a large, dedicated porting team — as evidenced by the titles already announced.

That video was done in an emulator (Project 64, same as I used back in the day) with iZ3D drivers. If they can do it, Nintendo can. Enable your 3D viewing method of choice; “parallel” works best for me, not having any glasses. (Watch on YouTube for non-distorted version)

So in all likelihood, you’ve got stuff like F-Zero X, Blast Corps, Body Harvest, Wave Race 64 (which would be awesome), probably even GameCube stuff like Wind Waker and Metroid Prime coming down the pipe. Might we even see depth-enhanced (“depth-enhanced,” I like that) sprite-based games? I wouldn’t put it past them. The background layers in SNES games are often already separated to provide parallax movement, though of course the 3D effect wouldn’t be as complete. Super FX and Mode 7 games would be interesting, though.

As a bonus, if and when they decide to support 3D for the big screen (likely their next console will at least have the capability — the 3-Wii? Wii-D?), they’ll have a boatload of games ready for distribution.

Seriously. There’s no way Nintendo isn’t going to leverage its huge back catalog — they know they can make the conversions, and they know people will buy them. They’ve obviously prioritized the big sellers for launch titles, but we’ll probably see announcements for more before the 3DS’ release date, which could be as early as Holiday 2010.

Target-tracking autonomous guard-bot-tank is the precursor to the Hunter-Killer

Posted: 28 Jun 2010 03:30 PM PDT


Ah, how refreshing. Another reminder of the upcoming Robocalypse. People, if we do the machines’ work for them, we have no chance. We’re honestly designing autonomous killer robots?! This is a Thai project, but I’m going to go ahead and blame Korea anyway.

As you can see, all that needs to happen is a little optimizing and these things will take over the world.

There is one hope:

Wait — nooo!

Batteries: lead acid – 2x 7.5A 12V series together for 24V main power, 6V 5A for microntroller and sensor, 12V 2A for video transmitter, all fully regulated and auto power source swapping when some of batteries run out.

We’re doomed.

[via Hack A Day]

High school science teacher tricks his students into actual NASA assignment

Posted: 28 Jun 2010 03:00 PM PDT

First off, let me say that neatorama.com could be my favorite URL ever. Moving on… A Massachusetts high school science teacher recently put his three best students on a special assignment. They were told to imagine a world where some sort of spacecraft was hurtling toward Earth, and that it was up to them to figure out how they would record the event while onboard a separate aircraft. As you might expect, the teacher then REVEALED THAT HE WAS THE HIGHER POWER~! Wait, no. The teacher then revealed that their little science experiment was, in fact, an actual mission that would be carried out in conjunction with NASA.

So, the students and the teacher went to Japan, where they would board a DC-8 and take photos of the Hayabusa spacecraft.

The video actually taken by the kids is here, but embedded here is another video of the same event.


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy S Captivate for AT&T

Posted: 28 Jun 2010 02:57 PM PDT

I can’t say much about the Galaxy S Captivate that hasn’t been said, other than to inform you that this ultra-slim Android phone is amazingly small, light, and very exciting. Styled like the EVO 4G but running on AT&T, the phone features 16GB internal storage and a 1GHz processor. The model I saw was production-ready and ran Android 2.2.

Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>

A spot for your earphones

Posted: 28 Jun 2010 02:30 PM PDT


For $13, you can purchase Spot for Earphones, a simple little solution for managing the long cord on your MP3 player’s headphones. It’s certainly a lot more expensive than the perennial Altoids tin earbud case, but it’s a good bit more functional, too. The integrated clip allows you to attach the Spot to any piece of clothing or accessory to keep it handy but out of the way. Roll up the cord for storage, and simply let gravity unroll the cord when you’re ready to use the earbuds again.


Spot• for Earphones from Smart Products on Vimeo.

There’s also a Spot for Bluetooth for $11, which might be a good way to keep your Bluetooth headset handy without making you look like a BlueTool all the time.

The Top 10 Swatch Watches

Posted: 28 Jun 2010 01:26 PM PDT


In honor of the passing of Nicolas Hayek, CEO of the Swatch Group, we decided to wax a little nostalgic about his most breathtaking – and lucrative – product: the Swatch watch.

Swatch was the brainchild of Elmar Mock and Jacques Müller in an attempt to make the thinnest wristwatch in the world. Instead, they created a simple plastic quartz watch with a movement that contained only about sixty pieces instead of the 100-plus found in Japanese quartz movements at the time. Hayek saw this as an excellent opportunity to create a “throwaway” watch that could be worn for a season and then swapped with another model. Artist and designers adorned the watches in odd patterns and the company brought the nascent Swatch Group, formed by Hayek in the early 1980s, to the forefront of Swiss watch manufacturing.

At $20 or so, these watches were amazingly cheap and many collectors bought two at a time: one to wear and one to keep hidden away. The watches married high tech with high design and, given their fashion-forward nature, are the precursors to many of the design decisions made today by CE manufacturers. The iPod as an object of desire couldn’t have existed without the Swatch paving the way for inexpensive but highly designed objects to woo the consumer into regular purchases.

Here are ten of our favorite Swatch innovations:


10. The first Swatches
While they’re not much to look at now, these watches changed the world. They made watches fashion items and brought new artists and designers to the fore. Before these Swatches (more here), watches were something you got at your Bar Mitzvah or your retirement. Now you could wear a watch to the beach.


9. Tone In Blue SLK100 Musical Swatch Watch
The Musical series consists of some of the oddest watches Swatch ever released. They would play a tinny little tune by a famous musician. This one played a song by Jean Michel Jarre.

8. Swatch Paparazzi Spot Watch
Never ones to ignore a lucrative partnership, Swatch was the first company to work with Microsoft on their SPOT technology. Sadly, the tech died on the vine.

7. These Swatch ads


6. Serpent GZ102 Keith Haring Swatch
Way back in 1985 a young artist named Keith Haring designed a Swatch watch, proving that art and commerce mix in delightful ways. His whimsical watch now costs about $1000 online, a testament to the artist’s enduring popularity.


5. Swatch watch protectors
You could buy these little rubber things for your watch back in the 1980s. Why? Because Swatch could sell them to you. It’s called recursive marketing.


4. Swatch Uhren Double Dot YKS4001
This is not really a watch, but a movement. In 1999 Hayek and Nicholas Negroponte created Internet Time, a universal time standard. Popular for a few years, the fad died out recently but it’s still hanging on in some corners of the nerd community.


3. Swatch Right Track
Another amazing automatic, this time with a chrono movement. A great way to fall into collecting. Check out a great review here


2. Swatch Irony Automatic Body and Soul
A pure example of Swatch’s ingenuity. Once you get hooked on the Swatch design, they throw a bunch of automatics at you. The automatic pieces like this one take Swatch timekeeping to the next level and often made casual Swatch wearers into hard-core collectors.


1. The Jelly
While a number of these watches appeared over the years, the Jelly is probably one of the oldest styles in the Swatch playbook. Completely transparent except for parts of the movement, the Jelly line defined the playful lines and odd styling of the Swatch world.

Many images came from SwatchAndBeyond, a great Swatch resource.


A 2 minute trip down Apple’s memory lane

Posted: 28 Jun 2010 01:20 PM PDT


Fun fact: All of these computers are owned by one dude. And you guys call us fanboys. [via TUAW]

Meet DARwIn-LC, Virginia Tech’s new mini humanoid (video)

Posted: 28 Jun 2010 01:17 PM PDT

I’d say about 90% of all robotics-related news we cover on CrunchGear is from Japan, so getting to report about a new robot that’s actually made in the US is a nice change of pace. The little guy you see on the picture and in the video embedded below is called DARwIn-LC and was developed by the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory (Romela) at Virginia Tech.

With its cute design, DARwIn-LC looks very much like one of the many Japanese humanoids out there. He’s actually a first step on the way to developing a whole new "Open Platform Humanoid Robot", with Romela planning to commercialize the kit next year (according to RoboForum Singapore).

The robot features two joints in its head and another 18 in its body. DARwIn-LC may move a bit clumsy at this early stage, but the way he tracks and follows the ball in the clip below (and kicks it in the right moment) is quite impressive already.

Here’s DARwIn-LC in action:

Via Plastic Pals

Beewi Bluetooth headphones certainly look appealing

Posted: 28 Jun 2010 01:00 PM PDT

Oh look, a random pair of UK-only, Bluetooth headphones! They’re the Beewi BBH100, and I will readily admit that they look fairly spiffy. Not too expensive either, at £32.90, or around $50.

The headphones tick most of the boxes you’d like to see… ticked. Bluetooth 2.1 compatibility, 25 hours of battery life (or 200 hours on standby), and a bunch of cellphone-specific buttons (pick-up, hang-up, etc).

Then again, this being 2010 and all, I would be utterly shocked if you didn’t already own a pair of nice headphone, Bluetooth or otherwise.

The Viliv N5 vs the UMID mbook BZ

Posted: 28 Jun 2010 12:00 PM PDT


I have before me the two hottest clamshell PCs on the market: the Viliv N5 and the UMID mbook BZ. I’m not sure if hot is the right word seeing as I’m still not convinced there’s even a market for these devices, but let’s move on.

The two are very similar. They both share the same form factor, target demographic, and functions and so what follows is my quest to determine the best device. However, I’m not sure I succeeded.

Form Factor

There is no question that the Viliv takes top honors in this category. The N5 is sleek, sexy, and downright gorgeous where the mbook BZ is, well, utilitarian.

It’s just not looks, though. The Viliv N5 feels so much more solid. The construction quality is top-notch with not one manufacturing seam out of place. The mbook BZ material’s feel cheap in comparison.

Winner – Viliv

Screen

Both the Viliv N5 and mbook BZ have 1024 x 600 screens. Both screens have great contrast, brightness and sharpness. However, the glossy overlay on the N5’s makes it a mirror in a bright room or outside therefore the mbook BZ wins by default.

Winner – mbook BZ

Keyboard & Mouse

Typing on these small clamshells is almost an art form. I’m still not sure if I’m supposed to place the device on the desk and type with my fingers, or grip it like a BlackBerry and peck with my thumbs. Neither are great at the task, but I’ve found the keyboard on the mbook BZ to be a bit more usable.

At first look, the mbook BZ’s keyboard is a bit mushy, but it’s not like you’re pounding on it desktop-style so it really doesn’t matter. The mbook bz’s letter keys are all the same size and in the right location where a few of the letters on the Viliv’s keyboard are slightly smaller — the L and the K, specifically.

The narrower build on the mbook BZ also makes holding it BlackBerry-style easier and therefore better suited for thumb typing.

However, the optical trackpad on the Viliv N5 works so much better than the mbook BZ’s. It’s nearly unusable on the mbook BZ, although it could be a driver issue. Thankfully both are touchscreens, though, so it’s not like you’re required to use the pads anyway.

Winner – Tie

Battery Life

The mbook BZ is listed with a 7-hour battery and the Viliv N5’s is supposed to last 6. Both last about 5:30 in my tests.

Winner – Tie

Graphic power

The Viliv is a slightly more powerful kit with an Intel Atom Z520 1.3GHz chip and 1GB of DDR2 memory vs the mbook BZ’s Intel Atom Z515 1.2GHz paired with 512MB of DDR2 memory. It shows, too. YouTube runs fine on both, but the Viliv N5 can just barely playback Hulu Desktop and a 720p video file.

Winner – Tie

Extras

Viliv N5

  • Built-in 3G modem
  • GPS
  • Windows 7 Starter

UMID mbook BZ

  • VGA out
  • Non-glare screen
  • Windows XP Home

Of course this comparison is a bit silly seeing as the Viliv N5 will cost more than the mbook BZ when it launches later this summer. But still, I believe UMID mbook BZ held its own in most of the tests and might fit your requirement list for a full-feature pocketable clamshell PC. Really the only that the Viliv N5 does better is video playback. It doesn’t hurt that it looks better, too.

Full specs

Viliv N5

  • Intel Atom 1.3GHz (Z520)
  • 1GB DDR2 RAM
  • 32GB SSD
  • 4.8-inch Single-touch LCD
  • 1024 x 600 resolution
  • 3G modem
  • WLAN 802.11b/g
  • Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
  • GPS Sirf Star3
  • 1.3MP webcam
  • 1 USB Port
  • 1 microSD Card Slot
  • 1 3.5mm headphone out
  • 6 hour battery life
  • Windows 7 Starter
  • 0.85lbs

UMID mbook BZ

  • Intel Atom 1.2GHz (Z515)
  • 512MB DDR2 RAM
  • 16GB SSD
  • 4.8-inch Single-touch LCD
  • 1024 x 600 resolution
  • WLAN 802.11b/g
  • Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
  • 1.3MP webcam
  • 1 USB Port
  • 1 microSD Card Slot
  • 1 3.5mm headphone out
  • VGA out
  • 7 hour battery life
  • Windows XP Home
  • 0.8lbs
  • Price: $499
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